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U.N.I.T Files
Story Synopsis In the first season, Captain John Kingsland and Agent Tom Percy of U.N.I.T are tasked to defeat the evil Teraforms, find an alien murderer, investigate ghosts in a farmhouse and fight a rogue agent...but who is John Kingsland? Where does he come from? And, most importantly, what are the mysterious Shadows that haunt him...? In the second season, Captain John Kingsland returns with Tom and new member Oliver Turner. Together with their new director Lucy Rhodes and Lieutenant Michael Foster, they must face new threats - and save U.N.I.T itself... Continuity *''Kingsland uses a Vortex Manipulator, akin to Time Agents in 'Doctor Who', including Captain Jack Harkness.'' *''There is a small reference to The Doctor as a "man with no name" in 'Gods of the Sky', who apparently stopped the Teraforms in Ancient Egypt. The incarnation of this Doctor is not specified.'' *''Rattigan previously appeared as a parallel Universe version of himself in FBC Productions' Doctor Who series .'' * The Daleks appear in 'Flashback', with the story set in 2009 alongside the events of the Doctor Who story 'The Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End' (2008). * Oliver's line "oh great, rocks" is a homage to a quote from Doctor Who: 'Destiny of the Daleks'. List of episodes The first season ran from 2014 to 2015 with eight episodes, with the second running from 2016 to 2017 over the course of five episodes. Production Production on the Pilot began on the 2nd February 2014, following almost a year of pre-production planning and development. The Pilot was filmed in 1080p HD, and editing was finished by April 2014, with the episode rendered in HD - a first for Tescelector Productions (although The Final Adventure was originally made in HD, it was shown in lower quality). It was the first film to be shot in a Cinematic Style, to make it look more professional. Costumes and props were re-used from FBC Productions' Doctor Who series and other co-productions between FBC and Tescelector Productions. Filming for 'The Farmhouse' on 13th September 2014 was the first location shoot ever done for a Tescelector Productions film, although several street scenes were filmed for 'Gods of the Sky'. The 2009 scenes for 'Flashback' and 'The Rogue Agent' were filmed on one day on 11th January 2015, with the present scenes filmed on 18th January 2015. '' Filming for Season One concluded on 28th May 2015 with 'Revelations', which was released on 30th May 2015. In July 2015, Joe Sheehan confirmed that U.N.I.T Files had been cancelled, and would not return for a full second season as originally intended, despite plans already being developed. However, Sheehan has suggested that a special may air towards the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. Pete Messum has mentioned that a mini-series of about three episodes could be made for 2016, concluding the arcs from the Season One and giving the series a satisfying conclusion, but also leaving the story open for another mini-series. In May 2016, Joe Sheehan commissioned a full second season of U.N.I.T Files with eight episodes, with filming beginning on the 28th June 2016. Filming is currently on hiatus after various issues surrounding the production, though executive producer Pete Messum has stated that it is only temporary until these issues can be fixed. Filming did resume on 12th July 2016, but problems with production caused pick-ups to be filmed on 16th July. Principal photography on Season 2, Episode 2 'Doppelgangers' concluded on the 18th July 2016. '' On the 20th July 2016, Joe Sheehan confirmed that Season Two would be the latest installment of U.N.I.T Files, announcing his intentions to end the series. Filming resumed on the 18th August with Georgia Jennings filming her first scenes; on that day principal photography on Episode 1 was completed. Filming on Episode 4 began on 26th August, and Episode 5 began production on 29th August 2016. After 30th August 2016, filming went on hiatus once again until 1st October 2016. After filming problems on the 8th October, re-shoots on Episode 5 were completed on 16th October 2016, followed by more filming on the episode on 24th October 2016. Filming re-commenced on 3rd December 2016 with the third episode 'Visions of Apprehension', meaning that currently Episodes 3, 4 and 5 are in production - albeit with different directors (those being J.J. DeWitt, Joe Sheehan and Pete Messum respectively).On the 22nd December 2016, production halted after various issues. While on 3rd January 2017 filming resumed, behind the scenes troubles still lingered. Filming on the second season concluded on the 22nd January 2017. As an April's Fools joke - specifically for Joe Sheehan - J.J. DeWitt and Pete Messum put together a teaser trailer for a mock-spin-off series, 'The Oliver Turner Adventures'. Editing on the episodes was completed on 26th April 2017, a little over a month before the release of the last episode. Cast The first season only featured Joe Sheehan and Pete Messum in the cast as John Kingsland and Tom Percy, while also doubling as various monsters. Reggie Sheehan had a cameo as himself. J.J. DeWitt joined the main cast of the second season, with Adam Mayhew, Daniel Moynan and Georgia Jennings guest starring throughout. Crew Joe Sheehan wrote and directed 'Gods of the Sky', while his original script and plan for 'Death by Terror' and 'Phobia' were adapted by himself and Pete Messum, both in script and direction. Despite Pete Messum writing the story and original draft script of 'The Farmhouse', Joe Sheehan ended up co-writing and co-directing the finished product. J.J. DeWitt joined the writing team for Season 2 with 'Visions of Apprehension', while Joe Sheehan wrote and directed 'Doppelgangers' and 'Oliver's Story'. Pete Messum came on board as Script Editor for Season 2, after working only on 'Gods of the Sky'. J.J. DeWitt directs his own episode 'Visions of Apprehension'. Adam Mayhew assisted with cinematography on 'The Return' and 'End of Days'. Production Notes Music is from Torchwood: Children of Earth Original Television Soundtrack, Sherlock: Series Two Original Television Soundtrack and Kevin Macleod. A lot of the copyrighted music was edited slightly in post-production by Pete Messum. From 'The Farmhouse' onwards, the end theme was changed from the "UNIT Rocks" track by Murray Gold for the Doctor Who: Series 4 Original TV Soundtrack to that of Andrew Lockington's end theme for 'Primeval: New World' from 2012/13 as it was shorter and fitted the credits much better than the previous theme. Sound FX were used from YouTube.com and Movie Maker Sound Effects. CGI was used from YouTube.com and the logo was an altered Doctor Who 2005-13 version, with the Tescelector Productions logo added alongside a 'Files' by the UNIT initials. For season 2 the logo was altered to match the 2013-15 version of the U.N.I.T logo, with the Tescelector logo removed from the title card. A full title sequence was made for the second season, with four different variations developed to include the appropriate cast members featured in each episode. Messum tried to creative consistent 'themes' while editing the music into Season 2, including one track he saw as "Oliver's action theme". No motifs from the first season were kept however, bar some uses of the Torchwood soundtrack. Trivia * The masks used for the Shadows were used in FBC's Doctor Who series for the Gelth, as well as in original Tescelector co-production Blackout. * The Teraform masks were later used in FBC Production's Doctor Who series. * The masks used for the unnamed Creatures were previously used for the ECs in FBC Productions' Doctor Who series. * 'Phobia' had three separate alternate openings; one of which was released as a deleted scene. * 'Revelations' was the first episode to be filmed by Tescelector Productions instead of FBC Productions. * Rattigan was the Head of U.N.I.T in FBC Production's Doctor Who series. * The cameo character Sylvester in 'The Farmhouse' was named after Sylvester McCallister - a character from FBC Production 'Death's Doorknob' which co-starred Joe Sheehan. He was played by the same actor though. * Originally Joe Sheehan planned several seasons of 13 episodes for the series, complete with a synopsis for each episode and titles. Only a few of these ideas were eventually used. * 'The Return' marks the first and only episode to feature a multi-camera set-up for some scenes, using FBC Productions' camera as well as Tescelector's. * The script for 'The Return' had six drafts during the writing process, while 'Doppelgangers' had only two - one being Joe Sheehan's full script and the other being the edited script. * The second season was originally set to be a one-off special written and directed by Pete Messum, but once Joe Sheehan came on board to the idea of continuing U.N.I.T Files a full third season was commissioned. Whole scenes from this special's script can be found in 'The Return', as well as some story elements. * The original draft of 'Doppelgangers' had the team investigating monsters coming out of a hole underground, but the idea was rejected after it became clear how difficult it would be to film. * The story arc for the second season was originally set to continue in a third, set some time later, but Joe Sheehan decided to end the series at season two, so the third season's main story-line was condensed into season two's finale. * One of the original draft scripts for 'Visions of Apprehension' saw John and the team fighting a post-apocalyptic war with the Daleks, but this was changed to lessen the visual FX shots in the episode, and make the episode feel more standalone. * The entire second half of 'Oliver's Story' was extensively rewritten and re-worked after filming issues meant that Captain Lucy Rhodes had to be cut from the episode. * The story for 'End of Days' was originally meant to be spread over the course of 3 episodes, with one of the working titles being 'The Shadow Army' - an unused title from Season 1. * The last day of filming for the series - 22nd January 2017 - concluded filming on 3 episodes of the second season, proving to be the biggest filming endeavour yet - even if most of the filming were pick-ups from previous days. Spin-Offs Despite the series ending in 2017, many ideas for a continuation were pitched, one of which including a loose sequel following the surviving characters in the aftermath of 'End of Days'. Another was an Oliver Turner-centric spin-off series, which J.J. DeWitt joked about - making a teaser trailer for 'The Oliver Turner Adventures' as an April Fool. DeWitt also pitched the idea of an 80's-set prequel to the series, following a younger John Kingsland battling aliens in true 80's cop show style. Pete Messum noted that a deleted future-set sub-plot from Season 2 could make an interesting potential prequel to the series. Links Tescelector Productions' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLasGiy53zGLUzjrou_K5ksFYSyqXIVYwrUNITFiles YouTube playlist See also UNIT Files YouTube playlist__FORCETOC__ Category:Spin-Offs Category:Film Productions